• July 11, 2008

Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin will recommend the agency take action against Comcast for violating net neutrality principles, The Associated Press reported late Thursday. The FCC will vote on the proposal Aug. 1, according to the report.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year revealed that Comcast was slowing traffic to bandwidth-intensive peer-to-peer sites. The revelations sparked net neutrality advocates to file complaints with the FCC alleging that Comcast was violating a 2005 statement setting out net neutrality principles. Comcast said it was only trying to manage traffic on its network. Earlier this year, Comcast said it would develop a protocol-agnostic means of managing network traffic.

Free Press, one of the groups to complain to the FCC, cheered news of Martin's expected recommendation. "The FCC now appears ready to take action on behalf of consumers. This is an historic test for whether the law will protect the open Internet," Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press said in a statement. "If the commission decisively rules against Comcast, it will be a remarkable victory for organized people over organized money."--Wendy Davis